Nick Saban has been off the NFL radar for a bit now, and coming off yet another national championship, the Alabama head coach does not look likely to resurface in the pros in the near future.
Soon set to begin his 15th season as the Crimson Tide’s head coach, Saban agreed to an extension to stay in Tuscaloosa on Monday. The deal runs through the 2028 season. The 69-year-old HC is set to make $8.43MM this season, according to ESPN.com’s Chris Low, who adds Saban’s salaries will climb to $10MM per year over the life of the contract. Although college coaches frequently break contracts to venture into the NFL, Saban’s situation certainly does not point to him taking that path again.
Alabama is coming off its sixth national championship under Saban, whose team routed Ohio State despite Jaylen Waddle playing through a major injury and Heisman-winning teammate DeVonta Smith missing much of the game due to injury. Saban has now won seven national titles as a coach, with the previous championship — in 2003 — coming at LSU.
The ’03 Tigers’ title led to Saban trying his hand in the NFL. His Dolphins run (15-17) did not go especially well, and Alabama provided a prime landing spot. Saban popped up on the NFL radar in connection to the Giants’ 2018 vacancy, but he pushed back on any interest in the job (which eventually went to Pat Shurmur) shortly after a Bruce Arians-started rumor emerged.
Prior to his mid-2000s Dolphins tenure, Saban coached for two then-AFC Central teams in the 1980s and ’90s. He worked under Jerry Glanville as Oilers defensive backs coach for two seasons and more famously resided as Bill Belichick‘s defensive coordinator from 1991-94 with the Browns. It would seemingly take a perfect situation for Saban to return to the league, and Monday’s development makes that possibility more remote.
The man will be 76 at the end of this contract. He’s gonna be one of those coaches that once he can’t coach no more he won’t last long in this world. But what an amazing job he’s done
So your saying he will be like the former pen state coach dies after leaving coaching??
Hopefully Saban won’t be mixed up in a pedophile scam. Joe Pa knew about his DC and hid it for decades.
Hopefully the Wolverines don’t get any crazy idea about extending Harbaugh. He’s been an absolute disaster in Michigan.
Too late. Back in January they extended him through 2025.
This is an NFL feed.
And?
Saban definitely wasn’t good in the NFL, but we’ve certainly seen worse. And that’s not just the W-L record, which is more below average than outright terrible on that end. I can think of several former college hotshots who bungled their NFL runs, and in more than W-L columns. Saban did do plenty there, but not like Lane Kiffin or Bobby Petrino did. The way Saban left was a really big reason we judge him the way we do. Not the only reason of course, don’t misunderstand me. But I’d still rank Petrino and Kiffin far below Saban just in terms of conduct, the lack of wins not withstanding. Spurrier and Saban seemed more out of depth than just outright offensive to me personally.
All the Saban extension means is – a signal to Arch Manning that I’m not going anywhere, and that you need to come to Tuscaloosa!